***Right this is my first fic for a while, something to fill the gap between 
NNFW and the upcoming Good Guys series which I'm making. Anyway firstly to 
make sure that there is no misunderstanding:

THIS IS NOT A BLOODY SI FIC!!! Gary Thatch does not exist in real life; he 
is a figment of Peter Vine's imagination. And before you ask NO! Peter Vine 
has never or will EVER be inserted into his own fics!

Right now we've got that cleared up ENJOY! (Remember any flames, rants, 
advice or pats on the backs E-Mail to: PUDDAH@NTLWORLD.COM)***

The day was overcast. It looked; as though it was going to rain.
Water trickled down the natural streams that flowed down the steep
sides of the hills in the region of the Masaki shrine. Tenchi
wandered down the ancient steps as he headed home, looking over the
lush valley before him. The day was getting old as it got darker.

Clicking his neck after a hard days work, cleaning out the main
courtyard of the Shrine, he was looking forward a nice relaxing
bath after dinner. Noting the remoteness of the area made him more
relaxed as he finished descending the steps and walked through the
light forest.

"Yes this is the life" he beamed to himself as he walked back to the
house. There Grandfather and Father Nobiyuki would be waiting.
He heard the wind blow suddenly, sending leaves rolling along the
ground. "So serene" he thought to himself "so peaceful".

As Tenchi walked on the wind stopped. A figure began to de-cloak,
seeing Tenchi walk off into the distance the figure fully appeared.

A tall, slim man appeared, covered from head to toe with a thick
black bodysuit. His eyes covered by a miniature Infrared goggles
and on his hands were a pair of tight, chain gloves.

The man crouched as he looked around, scanning the area
with his goggles he sighed. He pulled the goggles off and blinked
his eyes to get used to the light.

"Lost her" he said quietly to himself as he took a breather. "You
sure?" came a voice out of nowhere. The man froze. Looking around
quickly he saw where she was coming from. "Oh crap" he said "Ryoko",
wide eyed as an orange energy bolt came right at him. He dived as it
seared through the tree, leaving a gaping hole. Not even thinking
of turning to see where the bolt had come from he got up and ran down
the path as fast as he could.

"Oh Gary" came a snigger as a young, tall woman with spiky Cyan hair
phased out of a tree "not running away are we?".

Gary kept running.

****

Tenchi was humming to himself as he heard a sudden thudding of feet
behind him, looking round his shoulder he saw a man clad in black
sprint past. "Gangway mate!" Gary shouted.
"Whoa!" Tenchi cried as he nearly fell on his butt. Gary grabbed onto 
Tenchi's arm and pulled
him along.
"Its not safe here!" Gary said "Leggit!"

Tenchi, being dragged along at an incredible speed, looked behind
him to see Ryoko giving chase by air.

"Is there anywhere I can hideout when we lose her?"
"What?" Tenchi yelled as he was pulled along "who is she and why is she 
chasing
us?"
"Me" Gary corrected "I just don't want her severing any heads
that's all" he said with a smile. Tenchi blinked, still totally confused.

When Gary turned his head back to the path he saw Ryoko standing
in their way. Stopping in his tracks, Gary then fell flat on his face as
Tenchi bumped heavily into him, unable to stop himself.

"Well , well, well" Ryoko smiled tapping her feet "out for a jog?"
"Might be" Gary said picking himself up "not that it should matter
to you seeing as your gonna spend the rest of your sentence where
you belong."
"You'll never get me back in that isolation chamber" Ryoko murmured, eyes 
narrowing.
"Isolation chamber?" Tenchi said, "Sentence? Now you've lost me!"
"I'll explain later" Gary hushed "just keep quiet for now".
"No!" Tenchi shouted,
"Before you do anything who is this lady?"

Gary looked at Ryoko with a raised eyebrow, then back at Tenchi who
was scratching his head as he struggled to take all this in.
"She's Ryoko, a highly dangerous inter-galactic pirate-cum-mercenary.
Wanted for numerous robberies, smuggling, gun running and numerous
alcohol offences" Tenchi kind of went white at that "And you are?"
"I'm Detective Sergeant Gary Thach, DS Thach for short. I'm here
representing the cross board of the 12 major police federations
and the internal justice system of the Empire of Jurai." Gary said
as he pointed at Ryoko "and she's been my target for the last 10
months when she escaped from Isolation after she was sentenced
to 2000 years for her crimes!"
"Oh" Tenchi said quietly as his color stayed sheet white, looking at both 
Gary and Ryoko as they stared
each other out.

After a long silence Ryoko burst out "You're not gonna get be back
in that chamber!" as she formed an energy sword giving Tenchi a big shock.
"Ryoko you have to  pay for your crimes" Gary said forming an energy sword 
of his own.
"No no!" Tenchi tried to intervene "you can't do that here!"
"You keep out of this!" the pair shouted at Tenchi. They got back to the
staring match that was developing.

"You really think that you can take me on?" Ryoko said through
gritted teeth.
"I don't think" Gary stared back "I know".
Ryoko shook her head with a smile as she phased out into thin air.
Gary looked around, quickly looking for  her. "Bugger" he muttered to 
himself he turned around and faced
Tenchi, looking above him. "Err...excuse me?" Tenchi said. "shhh"
Gary said "she's stalking".
"Stalking?" Tenchi blinked "what?"
"Keep quiet and stay close" Gary muttered turning back round. The sun was
setting, the air was still as Gary peered through the undergrowth.
After a moment, Gary nodded to Tenchi that they should move on.

They moved down the path very slowly, by now a light breeze had
formed. Gary stopped every now and then to check the area around
them. Shortly though after they moved on Gary stopped suddenly.
His head slowly turned to the left. He saw some leaves flow along.

"Against the wind" he thought. He quickly watched the leaves as they
flowed faster in an arc heading round towards Tenchi, heading ever
faster. "Look out" Gary said, kicking Tenchi out of the way as an
orange energy sword came into view, slashing down onto where Tenchi
would've been.

Gary himself jumped back as the sword flicked back up towards him,
threatening to disconnect his head. Ryoko appeared out of the spot
that Tenchi had been standing on.

"Oh very fancy" Gary said sarcastically.
"I'm impressed" grinned Ryoko "only 2 people have ever saw through that, and 
one died".
"Guess I'm the only one left" Gary said as he formed his sword.
"Not for long" said Ryoko as she jumped up leaping down at Gary, her sword
slicing down at his head. Gary blocked and was forced down onto one
knee by the force of the blow. Ryoko sniggered as she kicked him
back, Gary rolling just in time as Ryoko stabbed down. He flipped
round and jumped back again looking behind him to see the one of the
many tall trees.
Jumping onto the trunk, using a split version of his sword as a climbing
instrument he climbed as fast as he could disappearing round the
other side of the trunk.  Ryoko raised an eyebrow and casually
followed. "There's no way you can escape by going up Gary" Ryoko
shouted as she went round the wide trunk. She saw Gary, breathing
heavily. "Found ya!" she grinned as she brought up her energy sword.
Gary looked at her then just pushed off, falling away from the tree.
Ryoko looked at the space Gary had just vacated. A glowing dark blue
ball was embedded in the trunk. "Oh sh.." Ryoko cursed as she was
enveloped in the explosion. Gary however falling to the ground
slammed a spike into the side of the tree, slamming a button on his
suit to keep the climbing wire tight. Swinging to the side to avoid
the falling top half of the tree.

Abseiling down to the bottom of the tree he looked up and still saw
that the area of the blast was covered in smoke.

"In 3...2...1" Gary mumbled as he recalled his wire and spike. Tenchi
walked up next to him. "Is she dead?" "Her?" Gary grinned, "No, take
more than a minor explosion to kill her" he pointed as a large see-
thru blue sphere appeared through the smoke. "What's that?" "Oh that,
she's been enveloped by a special field device. The explosion
expels special magnetic particles of energy and they fuse together,
forming a special force field around the target" Gary explained
as he pointed upward "in this case our favorite space pirate Ryoko"
"Now what are you gonna do?" Tenchi asked as the sphere descended
to the ground, Ryoko banging against the see-thru walls. Gary walked
up to the Sphere. "Your sentence starts here Ryoko" he laughed.
Ryoko just stared, clasping her hands, shaking a bit. "Oh bugger"
Gary said quietly. "What now?" "I didn't count on her high pain
tolerance levels" Gary said as he stepped backwards. "Why what's
she doing now?" "Breaking the sphere" "What?" Tenchi exclaimed
"but you said" "I said it could it hold her" Gary turned and grabbed
Tenchi "What I didn't say was it could hold her to an extent, now I
think we should make ourselves scarce right?"

****

Gary started running really fast now, pulling his black head mask for
air. Tenchi followed having left his broom far behind. They hadn't
got any more than 200 meters when there was a loud explosion behind
them.

"She's out" Gary shouted as he ran "you better have a good excuse
for your parents" "Why?" "I need to use your phone-line" "What for?"
"I'll explain later just do what I s..what?" he stopped suddenly,
the gloves on his hands crackling with blue and yellow energy "crap!"
he cursed as he quickly took the gloves off and threw them to the
ground. "What's up with that?" "She manipulating the energy flows
and blowing the Dim-e" "Dim-e" "My control gloves" Gary explained
as he saw the gloves melt with the intense heat flowing through
it "they act as viaducts for energy, they blow and I've lost my
powers" "And they've just blown?" Ryoko said as she appeared behind
them "Aww too bad Gary". Gary said nothing as he watched her.
"Yo-you're gonna kill him?" Tenchi said. "Well duh!" Ryoko laughed
"he's been bugging me for months now, the sooner he's out of the way,
the sooner I can have fun!" Gary kicked up some dust into Ryoko's
face, using the window of opportunity he threw down a miniature
smoke canister. "Ohhhh you!" Ryoko shouted in the smoke. "Follow
me!" Gary shouted once again grabbing Tenchi, running into the deep
undergrowth. "Get back here!" Ryoko yelled as she gave chase, sending
bolts of orange energy crashing into the trunks of trees that Gary
and Tenchi passed, making them duck in panic as they ran, pure fear
and adrenalin urging them on further.

"I can't run for much longer Gary" panted Tenchi. "Same hereeee!"
yelled Gary as he emerged out of the bush, straight into thin air.
Grabbing onto the side of the ledge, he watched as Tenchi run off the
ledge. Gary managed to grab his arm.

"Hold still" Gary said as in inserted his climbing spike "and keep
quiet". Tenchi nodded.

After a minute or so, steps were heard.

"Dammit" a voice that sounded like Ryoko cursed "lost em'. Well I'd
better find Gary at least". The footsteps stopped. "What she doing?"
Tenchi whispered. "keep quiet" Gary hissed. "Ryo-Ohki...come!"
Ryoko shouted. Gary started trembling suddenly.
"What's the matter?" Tenchi asked. Gary didn't answer as he heard a faint 
meow come from
the bushes. Peering over the ledge he came face to face with the
creature that was the Cabbit.  Gary froze. "Meow?" Ryo-ohki said
enquiringly, licking Gary's nose. "Aggg!" Gary screamed as he dropped
back down, the shock to the climbing spike was too great as it fell
out of its fix in the side of the ledge, sending Gary and Tenchi
falling down the side of the cliff.

"Gary!" Tenchi screamed. Gary recovered from the shock and looked
down. River, connected to lake. Good. Quickly forming an aerodynamic
shape he zoomed towards Tenchi, grabbing onto him and placing him on
his back. "Hold on tight" Gary yelled as he positioned himself for a
splashdown on the lake. Suddenly he extended his legs and arms to act
as air breaks.

Then they hit the water at an astonishing speed, sending water
everywhere. Two drenched and exhausted men floated up to the surface,
breathing in air to help soothe the exhaustion and shock in their
systems.

"Do ya reckon we lost them?" Tenchi asked. "I don't know" Gary
answered "I never got your name by the way" "Tenchi, Tenchi Masaki"
"Good name, lets get to your house on the other side of the lake"
Gary said as he got out of the water. Rushing with speed to Tenchi's
house, Gary and Tenchi flew through the front door, Tenchi throwing
off his shoes and rushing past Nobiyuki.

"Son!" he shouted after them "why the rush dammit!". He turned away
"Not like he has a girlfriend or anything". Looking over at Yosho
who was looking out of the living room window. "Hey what's that?"

Opening the door to Tenchi's bedroom quickly them closing it shut
again, they stared at it, breathing deeply. "Well I've got to figure
out a way to communicate with..." Gary started as he turned to the
window, he never finished the sentence as he saw Ryoko floating
outside, cheeky smile out on show. "Found you!" she chimed as she
phased through the window frame.

The look on Gary's face was one of total surprise. Tenchi's face
though was much more concerned. White even.

"Now where was I" Ryoko said as she walked slowly towards the
cornered pair.
"Ryoko you don't want to do this" Gary said "you'll have every
Copper, Galaxy detective, Jurain law lord and bounty
hunter going for your head."
"Good" Ryoko giggled "Always wanted a decent challenge for once."
"Wait!" Tenchi shouted running front of Gary "you can't kill Gary, Ryoko!"
"Why can't I?"
"Murder is illegal on this planet!"
"Well that hasn't stopped me before"
"I didn't mean it that way" said Tenchi "I'm saying its just plain
wrong!" as he stepped in front of Gary.
"Why is it wrong?" Ryoko blinked.
"Because it is!" Tenchi said raising his hands "and you'll
have to kill me to get to him"
"Fine so be it" Smiled Ryoko as she formed her sword.
"He's got nothing to do with this Ryoko, leave him out of it" Gary said
sternly. Ryoko said nothing as she raised it then stopped there,
seeing the emotion in Tenchi's eyes then looked over at Gary who had
that "don't do it" look in his face. She trembled a bit then cut off her
sword. "Aw alright you two can live" Ryoko muttered. Gary sighed deeply,
Tenchi blinked looked at Gary who was smiling.
"We safe now?" Tenchi asked.
"uh-huh" Ryoko nodded.
"Phew!" Tenchi gasped as he fall backwards onto the floor. Fainted.

****

"Well" Ryoko said as she sat by Gary looking at the lake "I guess
you're stuck here"
"Yep" Gary nodded "Also I guess what's happened
before is bygones"
Ryoko nodded. A silence followed for a minute or so.
"You weren't really going to kill me were you?" Gary asked.
"Yeah!" Ryoko laughed "you always did underestimate me"
"Well I must be getting soft after those months in front of the desk"
he smiled as he patted his stomach "I did after all get myself a beer 
belly".
Ryoko giggled as she drunk her sake.
"Christ that's your 3rd bottle!" Gary laughed, "You must have a liver of 
steel".
"I got it from somewhere" Ryoko said as she drank some more.
"Don't you remember who your mum or dad were?"
"Hey!" Ryoko snapped "I'm 2,000 years old what do you expect"
"Wow sorry" Gary said as he drank some sake.
"I'm sorry, I just don't know who my parents were, I only remember being
with Ryo-ohki in space that's all I've ever known"
Gary patted Ryoko's back "That's a bit of a bugger isn't it?"
Ryoko nodded.
"Well cheer up, you're going nowhere near that isolation chamber"
Gary smiled.
Ryoko perked up a bit.
"For now" said Gary as he drank some sake, a hint of seriousness
on his voice. "What happened to Tenchi?"
Ryoko said, looking towards the house. "Oh him, he's still
out cold on his bed, his father and Grandfather said he'd be okay"
Gary said through a smirk.
"He didn't really take the action that well" Ryoko said,
still looking at the house.
"Well I did have to save his life twice" Gary said as he picked up
Ryo-ohki, stroking her, the Cabbit meowing happily "No thanks to this silly 
thing."
"Hey all she did was lick your nose!" laughed Ryoko.
"Well...it still scared the crap out of me" Gary smiled as he tickled 
Ryo-ohki's
belly.
"Anything would scare the crap out of you!" Ryoko giggled,
"Remember the last time we met?"
"uh-huh" Gary nodded "you nearly took my head off with that massive chunk of 
sharpened metal!"
"You didn't like that at all!"
"You think?" Gary mumbled, "I've only just come off the Prozac and lithium".
He looked at Ryoko on her back laughing,
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing" Ryoko laughed hysterically "really nothing".
"What's all the commotion?" Nobiyuki said as he walked out onto the front 
lawn.
"Oh me and Ryoko were having a private joke" Gary smiled.
"So you're the beautiful lady I saw earlier," Nobiyuki grinned, kissing 
Ryoko's hand,
forcing a giggle out of her.
"Oh you're so forward" she smiled.
"And you're the policeman then?"
"No" Gary smiled "Executive investigator, Detective Sergeant is my 
comparative
rank in the Police service."
"So how did you guys end up here in the first place"
"Well" Ryoko began.
"I was heading past the planet on the way home," Gary added.
"And I coming back from the local bar in this part of space" said
Ryoko.
"There was a slight misunderstanding"
"We both crashed"
"And fell to the ground"
"And here we are" The pair both said at the
same time, to the amusement of Nobiyuki.
"Well we're very happy to have you if you need to stay for a while"
"That would be very
helpful" Gary nodded.
"Oh thank you honorable man" Ryoko exclaimed hugging Nobiyuki.
"Well no thank you young lady" blushed Nobiyuki as he returned the hug.
"Dad!" Tenchi scorned as he walked outside.
"What?" Nobiyuki said, "can't blame a man for trying"
"Oh!" Ryoko shouted as she phased out, reappearing next to Tenchi
"are you okay? You were out for hours!"
"No thanks to you, I nearly died twice with you involved!"
Ryoko smiled "oh those! I didn't mean to do that much harm!" she hugged him 
lovingly
"from now on I'll keep a watchful eye on you".
"Wow" Tenchi said quietly, not exactly in awe at the statement "really?"
"Really. Oh you're so sweet and you feel just like a teddy bear!"
"Don't tell me you like teddy bears?" Tenchi groaned.
"You got it!" Ryoko giggled.
"Don't worry Tenchi" Gary shouted, "you can trust her, she's true to her 
word!"

Fin